Yesterday we talked about how you should solve any of the “jobs” your product does for your customers.

Not only for what you think your product does for them.

Nowadays a lot of marketers are familiar with the Jobs to be done framework. But I actually learned this lesson way back, from a really good marketer, named Sean D’Souza.

How do I know he’s really good?

He sold me an $800 pdf.

You can get the backstory on my blog.

Anyway, in his book The brain audit, he talks about testimonials.

And how to ethically “construct” really good ones. Testimonials that sell to other customers and aren’t just the generic fluff you see on most websites.

The way he does it, is to collect information through proper questioning of the entire user experience. Starting way before they were familiar with the solution they bought.

So when I think about Jobs to be done, or finding all the possible ways I can solve for these jobs, I think about that:

What does the entire user journey and experience look like for this person?

To find out, I ask questions.

Here are my favorite 4:

1. How were you [doing what product/service does] before you found [product/service name]?
2. What made you think that [previous solution] wasn’t good and you needed something better?
   • Followup: When did that happen? Why then and not before?
3. If you can recall, what was the biggest obstacle that almost kept you from choosing [product/service name]?
4. What’s the biggest problem that [product/service name] solves for you?

You can see how we start way in the past, and we keep open to any and all solutions. Not just similar or competitor products and services.

Then we try to dig into their decision-making process and peer into the context behind it.

Understanding friction points and objections are also critical at this point.

And notice how the conversation is linear, we don’t jump from the past to the future and back into the present.

We are letting the customer tell us their story.

Finally the “biggest problem” question.

This helps us (and them) pinpoint the deepest benefit they are getting.

After keeping it broad, we narrow it down.

Solving for multiple use cases is great, but we always have to keep in mind how to prioritize those on our pages.

Collecting all the puzzle pieces is necessary, but so is knowing how to piece them together.

I’m curious, what are some good questions you’ve been asking your customers (or clients if you’re a fellow copywriter?).

P.S. In the mood for a quick website teardown where we look at a super fun Ecommerce brand? The latest weekly episode is live. Teaser: the name of the business is “Who Gives A Crap”…